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Effect of feeding dairy calves with milk fermented with selected probiotic strains on occurrence of diarrhoea, carriage of pathogenic and zoonotic microorganisms and growth performance.

Authors :
Fresno AH
Alencar ALF
Liu G
Wridt MW
Andersen FB
Pedersen HS
Martin HL
Nielsen SS
Aabo S
Olsen JE
Jensen AN
Source :
Veterinary microbiology [Vet Microbiol] 2023 Nov; Vol. 286, pp. 109885. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Oct 04.
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

Calf-diarrhoea is a major health problem in dairy calves and a primary reason for use of antimicrobials. We aimed to investigate the effect of feeding milk fermented with a combination of four probiotic bacterial strains to young-calves on; occurrence of diarrhoea and associated-pathogens (bacteria, virus and parasites), shedding of Salmonella Dublin and Campylobacter, occurrence of virulence genes linked to Clostridium perfringens, Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC), as well as growth performance. For this, 143 new-born calves from three Danish dairy-farms were allocated into Treatment- (fed the fermented milk for the first 8-weeks-of-life) and Control-groups (fed regular farm-milk). Diarrhoea was observed in 18.6 % (Farm 1), 22.4 % (Farm 2) and 15.7 % (Farm 3) of the total registrations mainly within the first 3-weeks-of-life. C. perfringens was the most frequently detected pathogen. The treatment did not affect the occurrence of virulence genes linked to STEC and C. perfringens and, overall, their detection levels were very low/undetected. The statistical model applied found no significant effect of the treatment on prevalence of early-diarrhoea (≤ 3 weeks), late-diarrhoea (>3 weeks), occurrence of C. perfringens and Cryptosporidium parvum or levels of Campylobacter spp. Limited detection of the other pathogens and associated virulence-genes under study, did not allow for assessment of the impact of the treatment on their occurrence. Notably, the feeding-approach showed a significant detrimental effect on daily-weight-gain. The inefficacy of the treatment may be associated with the complexity of influencing factors under field conditions including management practices.<br />Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Annette N Jensen reports financial support was provided by GUDP Development and Demonstration Program under the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries of Denmark. Co-author H. S. Pedersen is employed by Calvex A/S who is offering feeding strategy consultations and solutions for the cattle industry.<br /> (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1873-2542
Volume :
286
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Veterinary microbiology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
37812833
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetmic.2023.109885